A late spark wasn’t enough to escape a big hole for the Western Kentucky women’s basketball team, whose second-half rally fell short in a 66-55 loss to Delaware on Friday at E.A. Diddle Arena.

WKU (5-14 overall, 1-7 Conference USA) got career nights from reserves Enni Ahervuo and Yendri Acosta, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a depleted roster and a slow start.

“We dug a big hole,” WKU coach Greg Collins said. “Sometimes we didn’t play with that same fire. We played what we thought the outcome was going to be instead of just playing the game.”

WKU was without sophomore point guard Trinity Rowe, who missed the game due to illness. Two more starters — Salma Khedr and Torri James — also left the game with injuries in the second half.

“Obviously we miss Trinity,” Collins said. “She’s fighting some flu-like symptoms. We did everything to try to get her ready to go, but she just really felt awful. We miss her and we miss her leadership.

“It hurts losing Salma. She will probably have to go through concussion protocol. She took a hard hit, but she’s OK. Torri apparently did something during warmups. I’m not exactly sure what it was.”

In a game moved up a day due to impending weather, Delaware (9-10, 3-4) was able to start fast and hold off a late comeback bid to make it three straight conference wins.

The Blue Hens never trailed, scoring the first seven points and building a 24-11 advantage after one — fueled by a 5-for-5 start from 3-point range by Trinity Vance. It was the fourth straight game and the fifth in the last six that WKU has trailed after one quarter.

“That is directly related to our ability to score,” Collins said. “We are trying to win games in the 50s. It is directly related to our ability to finish shots, get simple shots. We have some that tend to hold the ball and look and then drive into trouble. I don’t understand. That’s nothing we practice, but that hurts us. The UTEP game we were able to get into transition and get some buckets there and that helped.”

Delaware continued to extend the margin, with the lead growing to 37-22 by halftime. Back-to-back buckets by Ande’a Cheriser late in the third gave the Blue Hens a commanding 52-32 lead before WKU got some life courtesy of its bench.

With a lineup of five reserves, WKU went on a 14-0 run to cut the deficit to six with 5:48 left. Ahervuo accounted for eight points during the run.

“We had kids like Enni, Lola (Bond) and Yendri come in there and they played hard,” Collins said. “They gave great effort. I was proud of Enni’s aggressiveness and Yendri got some picks in there. We have to work on that transition and make sure we get more buckets out of that. The ball movement got a little bit better, the player movement got a little bit better. We missed some things, but at least we were moving and trying harder. We weren’t looking for a reason to not play, but we were looking for a reason to play hard and play the game.”

The Lady Toppers were unable to get any closer however, with Delaware answering with a 14-2 run to push the margin back to 66-48 with 1:56 left.

Ahervuo finished with a career-high 13 points to lead the way for WKU.

“It starts with the defense,” Ahervuo said. “When the defense is good, offense comes with it.”

Khedr and Zsofia Telegdy finished with nine points each. Acosta finished with career highs in points (7), steals (3) and rebounds (2), while recording her first blocked shot.

With the loss, WKU has dropped eight of the last nine overall and are 3-6 at home this season.

“I think we really can’t look at that,” Telegdy said. “We just have to keep working. We are going to do our best and try to keep moving forward. Move on from this and learn from it.”

WKU returns to action on Jan. 31 at 6 p.m. facing Middle Tennessee State in the start of a three-game road trip.